Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The unstressful stress test and hummingbird wars

Monday we trekked back to Omaha for the echo cardiogram, or commonly called stress test, that I was not able to complete the week before. I knew it entailed walking on a treadmill and pictures of my heart. The first time we were there I had a very enthusiastic young woman who gave me the instructions. She said that every three minutes the treadmill would be at a greater incline and go faster, that they wanted my heart rate over 135 and she wanted me to walk until I felt like I couldn't take another step.

So I was prepared to sweat up a storm for this test, of course they have to go through the 'what ifs', this test could induce a heart attack or stroke being the worst. I was prepped with an IV line in my arm and monitors stuck all over my upper body when another young woman came in to take the before pictures of my heart. Then Dr. Porter came in for the actual treadmill session. I did the first three minutes with no problem, the treadmill raised a little and went faster but I was still striding along easily. I could see my heart rate was up to 145 when Dr. Porter said, "In 2 minutes it will go higher and faster, do you think you can do it or do you want to quit with this?" I thought, "He has better things to do than stand here and watch me walk since I've reached the heart rate." So I quit and rolled back onto the bed where they took more pictures of my heart. I passed the test with flying colors - take that to the person who said I had to take the test 'because of my age!' And I didn't even break a sweat.

Back at home I'm immersed in the Hummingbird Wars that are being waged here. I have waited all summer for the tiny birds to reappear and one finally stopped by a week ago. This weekend another showed up and let the fighting begin, there is always a bully that won't let the other bird eat in peace.

He cautiously approaches....


...."slurp, slurp, slurp"....


...and he looks nervously around.


"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."


"...slurp, slurp..."


...."Yum, yum!"


"What was that?"


"Did you see anything?"


"INCOMING!!"


And this is what happens when you don't save your seat!


Chair hogs!

3 comments:

  1. great pictures of the hummingbirds Julie !! The chair picture made me chuckle !!! Love your animals. I remember as a kid we would holler "place back" when we would get up. Maybe that would work for you ;-)

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  2. He he! Ask Bruce if he remembers "the couch is saved for me!!"

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  3. Bruce used to get disgusted to come back to his chair and find Porky had taken it over. I reminded him that he didn't 'save' it!

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